Washington High School - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Justin Decker was happy and optimistic about the future when he left the Kennedy High School gym Friday night.

Jon McKowen was disappointed and frustrated.

Guess who won?

The Washington Warriors played a solid game from start to finish and defeated the Cougars, 58-42, in a Mississippi Valley Conference game that paired two Metro clubs in desperate need of victories.

Washington raised its records to 6-10 overall and 3-8 in the league. Kennedy fell to 6-11 overall and 4-8 in the MVC.

"To be honest, we played the best we have all year defensively," said Decker, in his first year as the head coach at Washington. "I challenged our guys to play a 32-minute game and we finally got one out of them.

"It's great to see that they're still buying in."

McKowen led Kennedy to the Class 4A state tournament in his first two years as head coach, but this year's club has not jelled and appears to have issues with team chemistry.

Their No. 1 ranking is only a fond memory now, but the Cedar Rapids Kennedy girls basketball team is still enjoying one of the best seasons in school history despite losing a pair of games recently.

The Cougars added another victory to their impressive resume Friday night when they knocked off 15th-ranked Washington, 64-58, in a foul-plagued Mississippi Valley Conference game at Kennedy.

The Cougars have dropped from No. 1 to No. 7 in the Class 5A rankings following losses to Cedar Falls and Iowa City West, two MVC opponents that are ranked by the IGHSAU as well, but they are still a dangerous club at 16-3 overall and 9-2 in the league.

"It's been a solid year for us," Kennedy coach Tony Vis said. "We have to try and peak here the last couple of weeks going into the tournament."

Lela Sellers led a balanced attack for the Cougars with 20 points and more good work off the defensive backboards. Sydney Hayden scored 13 points, Hailey Dolphin had 12 points and Ashley Hamilton came off the bench to pop in 11.

Paul James announced Wednesday that he plans to retire as the activities director and football coach at Cedar Rapids Washington after the 2015-16 school year, but he plans to re-apply for the football job.

Due to state rules, James has to completely retire from Washington before he can re-apply for the football job in order to keep all of his retirement benefits.

"I'll have to sit out a period of time and re-apply," he said. "I don't know exactly how it will go, but there's a possibility.

"I'd like to continue, but IPERS rules force you to resign everything and then there's a rule you have to follow as far as coming back.

"You have to be real careful. Nothing can be pre-arranged. I would stand to lose my entire retirement benefits. I'll have to wait until it's posted and re-apply and see what happens."

James thinks there will be enough time to "retire" and then be re-hired as the football coach for the 2016 campaign. "Yeah, that possibility exists," he remarked.